I’m excited to share today’s announcement that Computerworld has recognized Perficient as a 2012 Computerworld Honors Laureate for our work with Texas Children’s Hospital. Perficient was one of 20 honorees in the Health category. From the Press Release

“Perficient was recognized for its innovative work with Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH). Perficient helped TCH implement a business intelligence technology solution, leveraging Microsoft technologies, that would give them the ability to not only use their data to increase financial efficiency and operational effectiveness, conduct innovative research and satisfy regulatory requirements, but also create an environment that allowed TCH to provide the best patient care in the most efficient and effective way possible.

“There’s no question technology plays a vital role in driving business forward. It ensures an organization’s ability to compete, innovate, communicate and thrive. What the Computerworld Honors Laureates so clearly demonstrate is technology’s role in moving society forward. Computerworld acknowledges and applauds the outstanding work being done by individuals and organizations that have successfully used technology to improve the quality of our lives and that of future generations,” said John Amato, vice president/publisher of Computerworld. “Computerworld is proud to name the 2012 class of Laureates and celebrate their initiatives benefiting society through the innovative use of IT.”

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer had previously referenced Perficient’s work at Texas Children’s Hospital in a speech he gave in Houston, showing the human side of Health IT. Here’s what Mr Ballmer had to say

“One of our guys was telling me a story which I thought was fantastic that happened here locally, so I’ll share it with you. Lady in Kansas, a grandmother actually, finds out that her not-yet-born grandchild has some kind of fetal heart problem and says, what am I going to do about this? Starts searching around, and the only hospital that actually had both good systems to allow her to find them, and actually could demonstrate what their outcomes had been with in utero fetal heart surgery, was the Texas Children’s Hospital. They captured that information, they published it. They had it in a place where this grandmother in Kansas, doing her research on the Internet, using information published by TCH, she was able not only to tell her child, look I found these people, but it looks like they actually get very good outcomes. They did an in utero procedure on this mom here in Houston, and the success story of course is there, the baby is fine, has lived in a way that you just can’t imagine in a generation prior to information technology.

TCH is now getting referrals for these kinds of procedures based upon real outcomes. Very few healthcare institutions can actually prove to you, by the way, they have real outcomes. They don’t have the data and systems to support it. And yet TCH does. And hopefully we get a chance, that’s as dramatic a story as I frankly have ever heard about the use of our technology, but hope we get the chance to work with many of you on important stories for you.”

From today’s Press Release “Perficient is honored to be named a Computerworld 2012 Laureate for its work with Texas Children’s Hospital,” said Martin Sizemore, Perficient’s director of healthcare strategy. “As the pressure to manage population health increases, organizations must remind themselves they are first and foremost dealing with people. Through our work we were able to develop and implement a technology solution that helped TCH not only track operational efficiencies and manage costs, but most importantly, provide the quality of care that patients need to live longer, healthier lives.”